Each day will bring challenges... but Glaswegians will all meet them

FEW could have predicted the scale of the challenge facing us since I last wrote. Life has changed overnight. The advice is clear – to employ social distancing – and we should all follow it.

Most pronouncements on coronavirus invoke the spirit of the Second World War. But the crisis facing us now is unseen and more elusive than the threat posed then. We are living through a moment of history – though I’m sure that we’d rather we weren’t.

We should pay tribute to those on the front-line – in the NHS, in Social Care and beyond – who are making enormous sacrifices. And we must repay them by following the advice, to keep ourselves and our loved ones well.

I’m grateful to my friend, Anas Sarwar MSP, for his call to action – asking each of us what we can do in this moment of crisis. Instead of surrendering to fear, he challenges us to embrace our humanity.

We must all do what we can – because together, we will persevere. The sun will still rise every day. Each day will bring its own challenges, but, knowing Glaswegians as we will meet them.

But, you do not face these challenges alone. Government must act.

We face a public health crisis. But the economic crisis is half-astep behind. We must tackle both hand in hand, lest we fall victim to another lost generation. So there are things that the UK Government

I do, can do now, to keep people safe:

• Increase the generosity of our social security generally and, particularly, Statutory Sick Pay. No-one can live on £94 a week. It is time it was raised and the self-employed were included.

• Emergency legislation should include provisions to suspend evictions temporarily – so that no-one needs to worry about losing their home.

Measures to reduce rates bills for small businesses are welcome, and the Scottish Government should stand ready to scale up its response as the crisis demands. But there is action that the Council should consider - and I offer some thoughts to form the basis of a broader plan.

• Immediate assistance to food banks throughout the City, to ensure supplies are maintained – and repurpose Council facilities wherever possible to provide food and other essential services.

• Seek to lever-in funding from others to establish additional ‘Solidarity Funds’ for the most vulnerable and small businesses, on top of what central Government provides.

• Get money flowing to those most in need. To achieve this, consider funds to support low, or no, interest loans through Credit Unions, like the wee Glasgow loan.

• Support communities in coordinating help for elderly and otherwise vulnerable citizens: those who are at risk of loneliness and isolation must be at the core of our response.

We must fight this public health crisis, hand in hand with the ensuing economic crisis. It is instructive that a leading figure in the World Health Organisation, Dr Mike Ryan, invoked the wisdom of Voltaire: “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”

We must act, and now, to cure this disease.